Words, reflections and thoughts to encourage, challenge and motivate from a Christian's perspective.

Friday, 8 January 2010

Car insurance - Argh!

Well it is the time of year when brother Don has to renew his car insurance.

As I had not heard from my current provider, I decided to call them. "Oh Brother Don, I am not sure why the renewal quote has not as yet gone out to you, but I can tell you how much it is......... It is a bit more expensive than last year......."

A bit more expensive??????? I used to drive a people carrier V6, 3.3litre, tow an oil well behind you type of vehicle; you know the type, to fill the 70 litre beast of a tank or should I call it the belly of a whale; it would cost around £70-£75 dependent upon what Mr Brown and his thick eye brow chancellor were thinking of doing that week.

So the Brother Don is now driving a diesel 1.9litre engine, people carrier, British manufacturer, getting 400 miles on the urban, where before I would have been lucky to have got half of that. I used to be in the petrol station almost every other day, just topping up the beast, in fact it got so bad, one petrol station named a pump after me. today I was just trying to remember the last time I was in a petrol station (you know I am praising God for His provision big time).

So you can imagine just how p'd off I was when this apparent "a little more expensive" became a £100 hike (20% increase). Now it may be that I am naive, gullible and so forth, but I thought that the longer you drive without an accident and the smaller the engine size of a car, the more discount you will get on insuring your vehicle. That it would evidentially appear, is way off the mark, in fact I am thinking of doing a number on Noddy and seeing if his little run around would come in any cheaper:

drawbacks of such a vehicle are obvious to see, but if it will give me a cheaper premium, I am happy to brave all the weather can chuck at me (I will definitely have to do something about those tyre - there bald with no grip)

I said to the operative on the phone that the only time a person seems to get a half way reasonable deal is when they join a new company, and as as soon as you come to the renewal, they feel it is their right to take you for a ride. I guess they have to finance the initial good deal some how and so they sucker you and try and hit you at renewal. Poor strategy really as you would think that they might at least give you another year to enjoy your good deal to a point where you may very well consider renewal at year three as you just like the company (well one can dream). I still believe that my increasing no claims bonus (in access of 7 years) is supposed to mean something. If not then let me know and I will start driving like a boy racer again and at least enjoy the premiums I am being shafted into paying and I will get all of the modification possible, the quadruple exhaust pipes, the tripping of the engine and so forth. Talking of tripping...... this company sure was.

Well I had intended to give some loyalty to this car insurance company, but after that they can go jump. I feel that I have no option but to play the price comparison ritual that we go through in this day and age.

I asked the operative what was the cause behind the increase and all I was told was that the insurance markets had all gone up. Was this a consequence of the global economy then I asked "I guess so, I don't really know I was told". WHAT! you are casually telling me of a 20% increase in my car insurance premiums and you do not even have the decency to know why......... Well I kept my cool as the Brother Don has got it down like that :O) No I know enough to know that this operative was only trying to earn their living and so instead of having another person try to blast them off about the greed of the higher echelon, I knew it would be wrong of me to give this person a hardtime.

So while I was having this conversation, at the back of my mind was this one thought - 'No way am I going to back this government in the next election'. That's right my brothers and sisters, make a stand and hit where it really hurts (the ballot box), as any goernment/s that believe the way to get out of a world wide financial crisis is to just create more borrowing and debt, are a bunch of jokers and should be performing in Billy Buntings big ring circus or the like (in my mere opinion).

So instead of writing a blog tomorrow, I will probably be spending my time searching for a good insurance quote with another insurance company that will push out the boat and lay down the red carpet for my first year of blist with them.

What a trifling, negligible bunch of expense abusing (UK government issue) elected representative we have, and I will not even go there with the Insurance company Bosses or I am likely to blow my cool completely :O) Keep praying for them, that they may yet see the light.......